Page 48 - Supplemento 2-2016 (ENG)

michele candotti

All this is to say that the international setting is moving, at times frustra-
tingly slowly, but it is growing. Yet the connections with this evolution in the
global narrative are incredibly tangible when it comes to the diagnostics that
have provided the reasons why we have to move forward and fast in providing
the best tools to make a difference in real-life. Diagnostics that talk about an
increasingly defined and evident link between the health of our natural system
and the well-being of our people.

There are three points that provide evidence to this and which will be
discussed during the UN Environment Assembly in May 2016.

First of all, the concept of environmental conservation and protection
has being shifting from an ancillary factor (that would have normally been seen
as a constraint to development) to a central piece of the package of solutions
that are being provided internationally.

The second element is that, although progress has been made in impro-
ving the planet’s living conditions, there are now new and more complex chal-
lenges. First of all, one quarter of the total global burden of diseases is now
linked to environmental factors or environmental degradations: we are in fact
at risk of reversing the case of progress in human health, particularly through
the combined effects of degraded ecosystem and climate change.

The third element that could exemplify this link is the fact that environ-
mental threats are 200 times bigger in terms of provoking, for instance, prema-
ture deaths than actual armed conflicts. Therefore, the environmental arena is
filled in with diagnostic data information providing more and more evidence of
this very important link between the necessity of maintaining a healthy planet
and creating the conditions for the human wellbeing.

I would like to conclude this overview of what’s happening internationally
and why it is happening by providing a couple of reflections on what will be
the debate during the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi.

First of all, the Assembly will draw from a constituency, that is not the
usual constituency of environmental experts, of staunch environment acti-
vists or ministers: it is in fact drawing in unorthodox allies, like judges, attor-
ney generals, armed forces, who will also gather in Nairobi in order to provi-
de their inputs in one area that is absolutely crucial in determining progress

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